Field Marshal

Of the human kingdoms on the mainland, Odessa projects the most force within and without its territory, despite having no large scale or professional army to speak for most of its history. Instead, it relies levies from its civilian population, raised from a young age to believe in Odessa as a cohesive national entity and trained to protect that identity. While there is no shortage of storied generals giving direction from the back lines, it is those paragons of the Odessan spirit, the Field Marshals, that lead the vanguard. Through their example, the soldiers under their command are inspired to go beyond themselves, giving their all for the army's purpose.

Field Marshals are the general term for the officer class of the Odessan military at the maniple level or higher (a regiment of about 160 men, from the Ubrekti word for an organizational unit that was slightly smaller but served roughly the same role). Field Marshals are typically groomed for these positions from a young age, pulled from their families in early adolescence for special schooling with a similarly-aged cohort of other candidates, although a small percentage (~10%) of its service is also composed of other soldiers in the levies who have received distinction in service. Field Marshal duties are expected to be pursued along with the other duties of landownership, but the position demands a lot of the Field Marshal's time and is the closest Odessa gets to having a professionalized military class, especially given Odessa's nearly constant war-making over the last century and a half.

While, like every Odessan past a certain age, Field Marshals have training with the longbow and long spear, once they have entered the officer class their focus usually moves to a variety of heavy cavalry techniques (particularly with spear), and some form of fencing (although the specific style and weapon used will vary from family to family). They also receive extensive schooling in the humanities and rhetoric, and stories of inspiring Field Marshal pre-battle speeches are legendary even outside of Odessa.